Hamilton College shot 58.5 percent from the field and cruised to an 82-68 non-conference win against SUNY New Paltz at New Paltz's Hawk Center on Dec. 11.
Hamilton (5-4 overall) buried the Hawks under an avalanche of 3-pointers in the first half. The Continentals made 7 of 13 shots from long range and led 41-26 at the break.
"Tonight was a very strong shooting performance that carried us to a good result," head coach Adam Stockwell said. "Several guys impacted the game when they got in. It was great to see balance in the box score resulting from very unselfish play. There were some positive signs building from Saturday (a 69-54 win at Vassar College)."
Matt Hart '16 paced Hamilton with a game-high 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting from the floor, including a pair of trifectas. Greg Newton '14 dropped in 16 points and handed out four assists.
Peter Kazickas '15 scored a season-best 14 in just 15 minutes off the bench. Ken Click '13 chipped in 12 points and three of the team's seven blocked shots. Bradley Gifford '15 grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and blocked two shots.
Matt Devine paced New Paltz (4-6) with 15 points. Deveino McRae added 13 points and Kevin Roach scored 12 off the bench. Andrew Joseph posted a game-high eight boards and made three steals.
There were four lead changes during the early stages of the first half. Shereef Taylor put the Hawks in front 12-10 with a 3-pointer, and that was the last lead of the night for New Paltz.
The Continentals scored the next 11 points to take the lead for good. Gifford started the run with a 3-pointer, Joseph Lin '15 made a layup and Kazickas nailed a shot from beyond the arc. Another 3-pointer by Gifford made it 21-12 with 11:02 left.
A Devine jumper pulled the Hawks within 24-17 two minutes later. But a 7-0 spurt by Hamilton put the Continentals up by 14 at 31-17 with 6:47 remaining. Kazickas made the first of two free throws and Hart and Eric Benvenuti '13 followed with back-to-back 3-pointers. New Paltz shot just 27.3 percent from the floor in the first half.
Hamilton enjoyed a double-digit lead the rest of the night. The cushion grew to 27 points at 72-45 on a layup by Kazickas with 10:03 left. The Continentals finished the game 10 of 21 (47.6 percent) from 3-point range. The Hawks tried to stay in the contest by pulling down 18 offensive rebounds, which led to a 38-31 advantage on the boards.
Hamilton travels to Morrisville State College for another non-conference game on Saturday, Dec. 15.
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